“Sorrowful Songs” Composer Henryk Górecki Left This World Today
by Trent Gilliss, senior editor
Henryk Górecki died today. He was 76 years old. Like many others, I’ll be forever moved by the second movement of the Polish composer’s masterful Symphony No. 3, the “Symphony of Sorrowful Songs” — a glint of beauty that is ours to keep forever. NPR’s Thomas Huizenga writes:
“The symphony, which Gorecki wrote in 1976, is centered on three texts — including a prayer inscribed by a teenager on a cell wall of a Gestapo headquarters — which the composer turned into haunting laments, backed by simple, slowly churning surges of beautiful music.”
The excerpt above features soprano Isabel Bayrakdaraian and Sinfonietta Cracovia, conducted by John Axelrod, performing Górecki’s masterpiece for Holocaust: A Music Memorial Film from Auschwitz. And, if you haven’t heard Dawn Upshaw’s 1992 version that catapulted his work to international fame, I recommend purchasing the recording right away.
